Βy Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The tragic news of Golden State Warriors assistant coach Dejan Milojevic’s sudden passing shocked the basketball world. In Milojevic’s honor, his former clubs Partizan and Mega played their ABA League match in front of more than 23,000 fans at Stark Arena.
Warriors’ head coach Steve Kerr said the entire team watched the game and fully realized what Milojevic meant in his home country of Serbia.
“I don’t know if any of you saw — we watched as a team this morning the event that they had in Serbia. Deki’s two teams were playing against each other; it just happened to be on the schedule tonight — Mega, the team he coached, versus Partizan, the team he starred for. And I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything like the pregame dedication from the fans and the organizations there to Deki. It was incredible. We watched it as a team, so I think we got a better sense of just what Deki meant to his countrymen. Of course, [with] how much he meant to us and Natasha and Masha and Nikola, it’s been a devastating week,” Kerr said in his first address to the media since Milojevic’s passing, wearing a specially designed t-shirt dedicated to Milojevic with the Serbian word “BRATE” on it, which translates to “brother”.
Golden State also practiced for the first time since their games against the Utah Jazz and Dallas Mavericks were postponed in light of the tragic event.
“It’s hard to describe the week. Heartbreaking, devastating. It’s just the saddest thing I’ve ever been a part of in the NBA, where we lose someone who’s so close to us,” Kerr said. “And then, more importantly, seeing his family suffer. So this last week has been — the last five days, I guess — has been full of all of the above. The shock, the emotion, the extreme outpouring of love from all over the world.”